Today's column relates the tale behind a cup of coffee in Franklin Square with Dan Gundersen, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's economic point man for the Upstate region.

The meeting came about after Gundersen e-mailed me, concerned about a blog entry from a few weeks ago. I had voiced some "Here we go again" concern after Gundersen confirmed - during state Senate hearings on his appointment - that he was living in Saratoga Springs, instead of Buffalo, where Spitzer's initial press releases trumpted that Gundersen's office would be based.

Usually, in a situation like that, a public official will either blow off a columnist or write an angry letter to the editor. Gundersen asked for a few moments of conversation, and over coffee at Freedom of Expresso he explained that the situation was not so simple - and that he still intended, within a year or so, to establish an address in a community far west of Albany.

His bigger point was to emphasize that Upstate's struggles go far beyond what he described as "political gamemanship" in Albany, and demand - in an efficient, cool and business-like way - a region filled with officials and citizens more or less on the same page.

As I say in the column, it's hard to argue with any of that, and I appreciate that the guy prefers to sit down and talk. But I think, for countless reasons of emotion and commitment, that he will find his life becomes much easier once his mailing address gets closer to Solvay or Lackawanna.